Mobile Internet Protocol (MIP) supports connectivity when an MN moves in an IP network so that the MN can still keep connection to the network after leaving the home network. The location of an MN is always identified by a Home Address (HoA) allocated by the home network, and the identifier of the location of the MN does not change with a visited network. After the MN leaves the home network, the MN is correlated with a Care Of Address (CoA) allocated by the visited network, and the current location of the MN is identified by the CoA, and the MN sends the current location information to a Home Agent (HA). The HA intercepts the packets sent by a Corresponding Node (CN) to the HoA of the MN, and forwards the packets to the CoA of the MN through a tunnel. The processing occurs on the IP layer completely, and is transparent to all layers above the IP layer.
Two basic protocols of the MIP protocol are Mobile IPv4 (MIPv4) and Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6). The MIPv4/v6 protocol enables mobility of the traditional fixed Internet host.
In the process of implementing the present invention, the inventor finds at least the following problems in the prior art: With the HA being applied to the home network, a majority of the signaling and data passes through the HA, which makes the home network become a performance bottleneck. Although the service provider can perform optimization by using multiple HAs which support plenty of MNs, the home network is still a bottleneck of transmitting and processing data traffic. The HA needs to not only manage handover of all MNs, but also manage locations of the MNs, thus leading to complicated design and heavy load of the HA.